Category: Sports

Chelsea have reached an agreement with Real Madrid for the transfer of 24-year-old Alvaro Morata from Spain to London.

Morata, who is left with medicals and personal terms to complete the deal is the Pre,mier League’s fourth signing of the summer, after goalkeeper Willy Caballero, defender Antonio Rudiger and midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko.

Morata scored 20 goals last season after rejoining Real from Juventus.

He won La Liga and the Champions League with Real Madrid last season with most of his appearances as a substitute.

Morata could replace Spain team-mate Diego Costa, who says he has been told by manager Antonio Conte that he is no longer in Chelsea’s plans.

Manchester United had been interested in Morata prior to signing Everton striker Romelu Lukaku for an initial £75m. Curiously, Chelsea were also in the run to bring back their former player before the Belgian opted to re-unite with Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford.

“I’m going to the team managed by the coach who has placed the most faith in me, and that’s great for me,” Morata told AS on Wednesday

Morata joined Real Madrid’s youth team in 2008 and was handed his senior debut aged 18 in 2010.

The 6ft 3in striker moved to Italy in 2014, scoring 27 goals in two years for Juventus, winning both Serie A and the Coppa Italia twice and playing in the 2015 Champions League final.

Real exercised a buy-back option in June 2016 to take him back to the Bernabeu.

Morata has won 20 caps for Spain, scoring nine goals, since his international debut in 2014.

Statistics

Morata’s conversion rate last season was 27%, the highest of any striker to score 10 or more goals in La Liga in 2016-17; he scored 15 goals from 55 shots.

His goals won Real Madrid 13 points in La Liga last season; only Cristiano Ronaldo won more for the side with 15.

The jury is already out on whether Morata will be able to seamlessly slot into the striking role at the Champions.

Some are of the view that the aggression and toughness of unwanted top scorer, Diego Costa are missing in the rather subtle Spaniard. Others, on the other hand contend that Morata’s conversion rate puts him among the best strikers out there.

As shown over the years, it is certain that the Spanish game will improve tremendously under Antonio Conte. The Italian is good at this -One only need to look at Nigeria’s Victor Moses

The rumour is strong out there that Barcelona superstar Neymar has reportedly agreed a deal to sign for Paris Saint-Germain.

Brazilian sports broadcasting giant Esporte Interactivo claim Neymar has been convinced of PSG’s project — of which he will be the star — and has verbally agreed a contract with the Ligue 1 side.

Neymar’s close friend and compatriot Dani Alves recently snubbed a move to Manchester City in favour of PSG and it seems that may have been part of the club’s attempt to lure the forward to France.

Neymar enjoying himself with his team mates

The former Santos man’s release clause is €222million (£197.3million), which PSG would happily pay. If the French club triggers this clause, it will imply that Barcelona would not be able to stop Neymar leaving if he wanted to go.

Barcelona officials, however, are confident that he has no intention of leaving them. They believe that, like last summer, the striker and his camp will reject overtures from PSG.

“Selling Neymar is not something the club would think about,” spokesman Josep Vives said at a press conference. “We are very calm.

“He is one of the most important players we have, we will not consider any offers we receive for him.”

Meanwhile, the fast and skillful Brazilian has rejoined his team mates for pre-season. Looking refreshed and raring to go, Neymar looked happy as he warmed up beside Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi.

Three weeks ago if you’d said that Romelu Lukaku was going to sign for Manchester United and Alvaro Morata was going to sign for Chelsea then people would have thought you were mad. But three weeks is a long time in football.

To be fair the two strikers moving to the clubs they eventually signed for is not completely out of the blue with Jose Mourinho having been linked with Lukaku before and Antonio Conte having been linked with Morata before, but that only tells part of the story.

At the beginning of the summer it was reported that the big Belgian was almost certainly heading from Goodison Park to Stamford Bridge and a return to his former club was the move he wanted.

The Spanish striker on the other hand was a shoe-in for a move to Old Trafford and it was merely transfer fees to be agreed. That was until the Red Devils got fed up with Florentino Perez and swooped for Lukaku instead.

Now Chelsea have taken the almost inevitable step of signing the Real Madrid forward with a reported €80 million fee agreed between the Premier League and La Liga champions.

Chelsea were linked with a move for the former Juventus striker last summer before Zinedine Zidane brought him back to the Bernabeu to become a member of his squad.

The 24 year old was actually the team’s second top scorer in the league, behind Cristiano Ronaldo obviously, with 15 strikes but he started only 14 games in the league and a further five in other competitions.

Morata will replace Diego Costa as the first choice striker at Stamford Bridge. Image: PA

Earlier this summer Conte told top scorer Diego Costa that he was no longer wanted by the Blues so an approach for a striker has been a priority for the Italian all season and having worked with Morata before it was an obvious move.

Now we can look forward to a season of Morata and Lukaku being compared with one another, their careers are now linked forever.

Wenger still has a way to go to overtake Sir Alex’s total time in charge of United (Picture: Getty)

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has made yet more history, with the Frenchman now the longest serving manager of the Premier League era after surpassing Sir Alex Ferguson.

On Monday, Wenger took his number of days in charge of Arsenal to 7,583 – exactly one day longer than Sir Alex spent in charge of the Red Devils after the top-tier of English football had been rebranded as the Premier League.

Sir Alex took over at Old Trafford in 1986 when they were in the old First Division, with the Premier League not coming into being until the 1992/93 season.

United legend Sir Alex managed for 7,582 days in the Premier League era (Picture: Getty)

Wenger arrived at Arsenal four years later, taking over at the Emirates in September 1996 after Bruce Rioch’s dismissal, leaving Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight to take over the Gunners.

That means Wenger still has some six years to go until he will match Ferguson’s total United tenure, with the Scot having sat in the Old Trafford dugout for 9,704 days.

Wenger is still 20 games shy of matching Fergie’s Premier League games managed record (Getty)

Although Wenger has spent more days in charge, he is still a few matches shy of managing the most games in the Premier League.

Ferguson still holds that record, having taken charge of 810 matches in the Premier League, while Wenger is 20 behind on 790.

Roger Federer, who turns 36 next month, is the oldest man to win the Wimbledon singles title in the Open era, which began in 1968.

WIMBLEDON, England — When Roger Federer and his growing family embarked on a new tennis season in 2017 after his six-month injury layoff, the big goal was winning Wimbledon.

Check.

It has been that sort of tour-de-force season for Federer, the 35-year-old Swiss maestro who might not yet have regained the No. 1 ranking but is firmly atop the sport on every surface except clay.

On Sunday, he won his eighth Wimbledon singles championship and 19th Grand Slam singles title by defeating Marin Cilic in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. The victory, his first at Wimbledon since 2012, made Federer the oldest man to win at the All England Club in the Open era, which began in 1968.

It also broke Federer’s tie with William Renshaw and Pete Sampras, who each won Wimbledon seven times.

He also became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1976 to win Wimbledon without dropping a set.

“The tournament I played, not dropping a set, it’s magical really,” Federer said in the postmatch ceremony with the trophy back in his hands.

Cilic, seeded No. 7, defeated Federer in straight sets in the semifinals of the United States Open on his way to the title. He had three match points against Federer in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year before Federer prevailed in five sets.

A hard-fought, close match in this final would have been no surprise. Instead, it turned into a rout as Cilic struggled for consistency and with his emotions.

After losing the second set, Cilic took a medical timeout on court and received treatment on the bottom of his left foot for what his coach, Jonas Bjorkman, later said was a blister that had formed during Cilic’s semifinal victory over Sam Querrey.

Cilic said he continually received treatment on the blister before the match but found himself unable to change direction without pain. His tears, he said, were from frustration, not pain.

“It was just a feeling that I knew that I cannot give my best on the court, that I cannot give my best game and my best tennis, especially at this stage of my career and at such a big match,” he said. “It was very, very difficult to deal with it, and that was the only thing. But otherwise, it didn’t hurt so much that it was putting me in tears. It was just that feeling that I wasn’t able to give the best.”

“We even tried with some anesthetics just to block the pain, but that area, it’s very difficult because it’s hard skin, and it helped, but I still felt some pain. And even when I was warming up for the match, I was trying to test myself in exercises with change of direction and really I was too slow basically to react and I knew it was going to be difficult.”

After a delay, he eventually retook the court, receiving a roar of support from the Centre Court crowd. He managed to hold serve with an acrobatic backhand half-volley drop shot winner to stop Federer’s streak of consecutive games, but there was no halting Federer’s momentum.

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In the early stages of the third set, he showed flashes of the attacking baseline game that had carried him to the final. But Federer took control for good by breaking Cilic’s serve in the seventh game.

Federer, who did not lose his serve in the match, eventually closed out his eighth victory at Wimbledon with an ace.

He was soon in tears himself as he sat in his chair and looked in the direction of the players box where his twin daughters and twin sons were now standing next to his wife, Mirka, and the rest of his team.

“It’s disbelief that I can achieve such heights,” Federer said in the postmatch ceremony. “I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be here again in another final after last year.

“I had some tough ones here, losing to Novak in ’14 and ’15,” he said, referring to his defeats to Novak Djokovic. “But I always believed I could come back and do it again, and if you believe, you can go really far in your life.”

Cilic, playing ins first Wimbledon final, fought back more tears in the award ceremony as he explained that he had been committed to completing the final instead of retiring.

“That’s what I did throughout all my career,” he said. “I never gave up when I start the match. So that was my idea also today. I gave my best, and that’s all I could do.”

Federer expressed sympathy, addressing Cilic directly in the ceremony. “You had a wonderful tournament,” he said. “Sometimes, you just don’t feel great in the finals. It’s cruel, but be proud of yourself, and I hope we can play down the road some better ones.”

Federer gave his first big hint that he was on his way to big things here by upsetting Sampras in the fourth round in five sets in 2001.

He won his first Wimbledon singles title in 2003, sporting a scraggly beard and a ponytail. Fourteen years later, Federer, now the father of four young children, was clean-cut and cleanshaven.

“I don’t remember what I did back in 2003, to be honest,” he said of his prefinal routine. “The team was much smaller. I didn’t have kids running around, potentially waking me up at night. Today we’ve got to, like, close down the doors, say, ‘Daddy is sleeping.’”

But neither time nor late-night interruptions have yet blunted Federer’s power or dulled his skills. Refreshed and improved, he has won five of the seven tournaments he has played this year, including both Grand Slam events in which he has taken part.

After surprising himself by wining the Australian in January, he skipped the clay court swing and the French Open to better prepare himself for grass and the venerable major tournament that suits his game and improvisational ability best.

But to call this year’s Wimbledon a grass-court event is only partly true. Rarely in its modern history has the area around the Centre Court baseline been more barren and scuffed up for a men’s final.

The court conditions led to several bad bounces in the women’s Open on Saturday, won by Garbiñe Muguruza, 7-5, 6-0, over Venus Williams, who at 37 was trying to become the oldest women’s singles champion at Wimbledon in the modern era.

Federer fared better in his quest. It has been that kind of season, one for him and his peripatetic family to savor.

“If you look at the other guys who are 35, 36, I think you can very clearly see that the age and the years on tour are affecting them, but not with him,” said Tomas Berdych, who lost to Federer in the semifinals. “You have to be a unique one for that.”

Real Madrid have recently beaten Barcelona to the signing of Dani Ceballos.

The move culminates a short but intense transfer battle between Spain’s two biggest clubs, as they attempted to lure the majestic young playmaker to their side. Now, this transfer could tip the balance of power in Spain. But then that’s the case for most transfers that these two titans contest.

Who wins those contests? When Barcelona and Real Madrid have gone head-to-head over a transfer, which of them came out on top? Historically of course, the most notable case of this was when Alfredo Di Stefano headed to the Santiago Bernabeu and set in motion a period of dominance in Europe the likes of which we’ll probably never see again.

But in the modern era? Since 2000? Which transfers have they contested? And which club has come out on top?

David Beckham

Year signed: 2003

Transfer fee: £24.5m

Club apps: 159

Trophies won: 2003 Supercopa de España, 2006/07 La Liga

Barcelona presidential candidate Joan Laporta had spent his entire campaign promising that if he elected, he’d bring Beckham to Catalunya. This stirred Real Madrid’s interest, who weren’t in the mood to be beaten to a signing by their rivals.

They swooped and Beckham’s mind was made up, he firmly rejected Barça and forced Manchester United to negotiate with Madrid. Luckily for Barça, Laporta had a truly incredible Plan B.

Ronaldinho

After missing out on Beckham, Barcelona moved swiftly to try and pick up Ronaldinho instead.

Real Madrid sought to outdo their rivals twice in one year, but after spending on Beckham they couldn’t match PSG’s price straight away, moreover Barça’s vice president was personal friends with Ronaldinho and managed to convince him to join the Camp Nou.

The Brazilian made his choice, and turned the balance of Spanish football for half a decade.

Thierry Henry

Real Madrid had been spending summer after summer trying to sign Thierry Henry. Arsenal constantly rebuffed them, but they refused to give up. In 2007 they were trying again, but this time Barcelona stepped up to contend them.

Despite Madrid have just won La Liga, Henry chose Barça. The move seemed a bad one at first, but then in 2008 something changed.

Dani Alves

When Pep Guardiola took over Barcelona in 2008, the first player he insisted on having was Dani Alves from Sevilla. The Brazilian right-back had been courted by all of Europe’s elite, with Real Madrid at the head of the queue for a player who was destined to succeed and surpass Cafu.

But Pep must have given him a Don Draper-level sales pitch, because he chose Blaugrana and from that moment, Spanish and world football would never be the same again.

Barcelona and Real Madrid had fought over David Villa all through the summer of 2009, with Valencia rebuffing all approaches and telling them to come back in a year. So one year and one botched Ibrahimovic transfer later, Barcelona swooped in to secure Villa before the 2010 FIFA World Cup while Los Blancos were still in the starting blocks. The best team in the world just got better.

Mesut Özil

Real Madrid love to sign the best player at major international tournaments, but all the best players in South Africa either already played for them, played for them in the past (Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben) or starred for their deadly rivals (Diego Forlan was an Atleti striker and the Spain side was built on Barcelona).

Mesut Özil was the best of the rest, having been one of the breakout performers for Germany. Even though he had professed his admiration for Barcelona and the Blaugrana were tracking him, Los Blancos swung the hammer and, promising him a central part in José Mourinho’s new project, convinced him to reject Barça and head to the Santiago Bernabeu.

Cesc Fabregas

Ever since Cesc Fabregas was pinched by Arsenal in 2003, there were grumblings in Spain. When he turned out to be as good as they expected, there were louder grumblings.

When he developed into one of the world’s finest central midfielders the big two Spanish sides began a long, long, long saga to try and bring him back (including Gerard Piqué and Carles Puyol stuffing him in a Barça shirt in 2010).

Arsenal rebuffed everyone, even though at times Cesc appeared open to it. In the end both sides came in for him, but he had already chosen Barcelona and went on strike to force his dream move.

Neymar

This is the big one. The player who, since 17, had been anointed as the saviour of Brazilian football. Who had been carrying the Brazilian national side for years and returned Santos from the abyss to the top of the game in South America, leading them to win the Copa Libertadores in 2011.

That year Santos lost the FIFA Club World Cup final 4-0 to Guardiola’s Barcelona. But that did nothing to stop Neymar’s meteoric rise. Real Madrid and Barcelona were both desperate to land him, with Los Blancos throwing avalanches of money at him and Santos in the hopes he can be lured to the Bernabeu.

But Barcelona had a secret weapon: Leo Messi. Neymar was an enormous fan of the Argentine, and became bewitched by Barça after that Club World Cup drubbing. Despite offering less money than Madrid, the Blaugrana managed to convince Santos and the player’s agent (his father Neymar Sr.) to allow them to negotiate with Neymar.

While the nature of the contracts signed have since turned out to be quite the (il)legal minefield, what is undeniable is that Neymar picked Barça and has gone from strength to strength in blaugrana. He now finds himself the second best player in the world and heir to Leo Messi’s throne.

Luis Suárez

When Luis Suárez tore the Premier League several new ones in 2013/14, Barcelona and Real Madrid stood up and took notice. Los Blancos wanted to repeat the trick they managed with Gareth Bale a year before, and the Blaugrana wanted a powerhouse no. 9 to compliment Leo Messi (and a big signing to help their fans forget Real Madrid just won La Decima).

Neither club was put off by the ban he received after biting Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which was odd. Marca had the Uruguayan all over their covers photoshopped into a Madrid kit, but in the end Suárez’s long-standing desire to play for Barcelona swung things and he headed to the Camp Nou, helped birth M-S-N and was a big part in delivering a Treble.

Danilo

Barcelona were desperate to capitalise on their Treble success by securing the heir to Dani Alves. They had earmarked the sensational Danilo from Porto and were making slow progress towards signing him. Wounded by Barça’s Treble, Madrid weren’t having any of that nonsense and swung in like Spider-Man with a big offer to take Danilo to the Spanish capital. It hasn’t quite worked out as the signing stirred something deep in Dani Carvajal’s soul, but Danilo remains a superb talent.

Vinicius Junior

Year signed: 2017 (will join in 2018)

Transfer fee: £39.6m

Club apps: 0

Trophies won: n/a

This 16 year-old hadn’t even played a single minute of senior football in the summer of 2017, but had just helped lead Brazilian to their third junior trophy in three years. He was by all accounts the next big thing, and Barcelona were looking likely to sign him with a €30m bid close to sealing the deal.

Florentino Perez was so wounded by missing out on Neymar he refused to countenance missing out on a player who could possibly be the next Neymar and threw €45m and a big contract at him.

Vinicius signed with no hesitation, although he can’t join up with his new team-mates until 2018.

Dani Ceballos

Year signed: 2017

Transfer fee: £14.45m

Club apps: 0

Trophies won: n/a

Dani Ceballos is the next Andrés Iniesta and his form all through 2016/17 was a beacon to Barcelona screaming out “COME SIGN ME!” – his performance against Barcelona was almost superhuman, and yet still nothing happened until season’s end.

Barça finally sprung to life and tried to bring this dazzling playmaker to the Camp Nou where he would surely revolutionise their midfield.

Instead Madrid swung in and offered him the chance to play alongside his friends and team-mates in Spain’s junior sides (Jesus Vallejo, Marcos Llorente and Marco Asensio) as part of the core of the next great Los Blancos side (alongside other young talent like Theo Hernández) and unsurprisingly he opted for the latter.

Rejecting Barcelona and donning the white of Real Madrid where he will unquestionably go on to become one of the finest midfielders in the world.

In a volte-face, Brazilian flying right back, Dani Alves has signed for French giants, Paris Saint-Germain.

The former Barcelona and Sevilla man, 34,was widely expected to join Manchester City and reunite with coach Pep Guardiola after their time together at Camp Nou. Several sources have pointed out that PSG offered to double the Premier League club’s salary offer and the Brazilian simply fell for the allure of the beautiful Paris City!

Alves was apologetic towards City coach and former Barcelona boss Guardiola before he lauded his new employer’s ambitions and addressed his family’s needs.

“If Pep feels hurt, I would like to apologize,” Alves said at his unveiling in the French capital. “The same goes for City. However, I take responsibility and I made the right decision with this move. I want to continue to be a champion.”

Alves admitted that City were not the only Premier League club interested in him but that he had to put his family first after he prioritized himself by moving to Juventus from Barca.

“I was not only of interest to Manchester City but other English clubs too,” claimed Les Parisiens’ new No. 32. “However, there is a very interesting project here. I spoke with the City bosses and I spoke with the president, who told me all about this club.

“PSG are ambitious and desire to win a title that it has not managed to for now [the UEFA Champions League]. I have friends here and my wife likes this city very much — these were several elements that convinced me to change my mind

“I want to be a part of this long-term project. With Juve, I was a little selfish and I took the decision alone. This time, I decided to be less selfish and to make sure that there was a connection everywhere.

“I want everybody to be happy, particularly my family. It is because of this that I mainly chose to come here.

Paris based ESPN FC sources revealed that sporting director Antero Henrique and his assistant Maxwell, PSG’s recently retired former left-back worked tirelessly to land Alves and that the latter’s friendship with his compatriot played a key role in the deal.

The conclusion of this deal has left people at City reeling and livid in disappointment over what was already considered a foregone conclusion. It is also a pointer to the reality that in today’s transfer market; it is not over until it is over.

FC Bayern sign James Rodríguez from Real Madrid on a two-year loan deal. It didn’t take long for James Rodriguez to find out what number he would wear at Bayern Munich, with the Bavarian side handing him Douglas Costa’s now vacated number 11 shirt.

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